Monday, November 05, 2007

This is the pack I got in my trade with Thorzul. This pack is dying to be open, the cards are ready to burst out of it as I type. This can't possibly be the first pack of 1990 Donruss opened on this blog is it? If not, this pack will still be the best one opened, I can feel it.

See what did I tell you? Wizard of Oz All-Star card, Big Unit and best of all, Mark Lemke. Ya can't get much better than the Lemmer. The puzzle card is of Yaz's right shoulder. This is actually one of Donruss' more fascinating puzzles. All the Diamond Kings from that year have the usual stylized, whacked out backgrounds that they had since the subset was introduced in '82. The puzzle however has a more traditional portrait of Yaz with the subdued, neutral background style used in the 1991 Diamond Kings, yet it works well with the bright, blocky borders of the puzzle. Surely this puzzle will one day hang in the Louvre as the key transitional piece that shows Dick Perez abandoning his wilder Modernistic trademark style to embrace the Renaissance Baroque method of portraiture reminiscent of the Master Rembrandt van Rijn. You laugh now, but one day his portrait of Jim Edmonds from the 2007 Allen & Ginter set will be more well known and more critically acclaimed than the Mona Lisa. The rest of the pack isn't too bad. I got Mike Morgan in one of his many uniforms, a Gregg Jefferies card that was a much better pull in 1990 than it is now, and Psycho with his pants mercifully on. Plus two Braves and two Hall of Famers! Gotta love that 1990 Donruss.